The drawbacks of daylight saving time (DST), or at least their severity, are dependent on the geographical location of the state or nation implementing it. DST is only practical in the temperate, and possibly the sub-tropical and sub-arctic, regions of our planet Earth. Elsewhere it is either pointless or the drawbacks exceed any potential benefits.
Daylight saving time is a deliberate modification of the framework of numerical values we assign to measure segments of the period of our planet Earth’s rotational spin, what we call a day. The purpose is to maximize the amount of daylight experienced by the majority of people. To reposition dawn on our artificial clocks, closer to when most arise, and dusk closer to when we go to bed. People are physiologically diurnal (daytime) beings, after all; no matter what lifestyles we may have adopted.
In the tropics around the equator, the period of the day when the sun appears above the horizon remains relatively constant throughout the year. If the Earth had no atmosphere it would be a roughly 50:50 division, 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. However, the Earth does have an atmosphere and that atmosphere is thickest and extends highest above the surface at the equator. Light from the sun is refracted by the atmosphere, bending in towards the Earth’s surface so that the sun appears visible at dawn and dusk when physically it is actually below the horizon. This is why the daylight portion of the day is longer than the dark; everywhere in the world when considered on an average for the year.
At the poles and the Arctic zones surrounding them we get the opposite extreme. For several weeks both sides of the summer solstice (midpoint) the sun never leaves the sky and for a shorter period, again due to the Earth’s refractive atmosphere, around the winter solstice, the sun never rises.
Adjusting the numerical time frame, our hour based artificial clock, by one or two hours at either of these extremes would be pointless in the Arctic regions and probably detrimental in the tropics. Moving the clocks forward an hour in the “spring” of the tropics may result in people having to rise before dawn for the next several months instead of after. The only possible reason to do so would be to conform to national standards, in a nation whose geographical spread encompassed such areas in addition to temperate regions that have more political power. Most tropical nations that adopted DST during the 20th Century when its popularity peaked have since dropped it.
In temperate regions we get seasonal variations in the daylight portion of the day. It grows longer in summer and shorter in winter. Daylight saving time adjusts our clocks in summer so we can make the most of the daylight and sets them back to standard in winter so we don’t have to be up for too long in the morning before it gets light. For more information on DST, please see the articles under Helium’s “Daylight Saving Time explained” title.
Many of the supposed drawbacks of DST are due to a lack of common sense or thoughtful consideration. People maintaining schedules based on our artificial clock rather than the natural day. As long as our schedules are only pertinent to our interactions with other people able to read a clock there is no problem, unless they forgot to change theirs. When they relate to young children, animals and possibly even plants, we need to recognize that our changing our clocks is totally irrelevant to their perception of time.
If a feeding schedule has been established with a baby where they are fed at 6am prior to DST, they should be fed at 7am during DST. Feeding them an hour earlier, just because the clock says so, is only going to disrupt the feeding schedule; causing far more aggravation for everyone involved than any parent would want, believe me!
If you are a dairy farmer and your cows expect to be milked at what is 7am prior to DST, you need to milk them at 8am while DST is in force. This may be more difficult, requiring a change to milk collection times by your dairy company. But if they are incapable of adapting to such requirements, you need to either change companies or join forces with your neighbors to force them to adapt to natural realities. After all, if you enforce such a change on your cows it will only result in reduced milk production and therefore a loss in revenue.
Pet owners need to think about this as well. Our beloved companions don’t use the clock to determine the schedules of their lives. While food-oriented dogs will be happy to get their dinner an hour early during daylight saving time, they won’t be as pleased when we revert to standard time. Most of our pets prefer set schedules, changing them suddenly by an hour just because we have changed the time on our clocks is beyond their comprehension. If you must, make the change as gradual for your pets as you possibly can, even though you have to accept it as an immediate in your dealings with other people.
There are also unavoidable drawbacks to daylight saving time. We all have an internal biological clock, the circadian clock, that regulates our body’s functions and impacts on our behaviors. The abrupt change imposed by DST disrupts our ability to adapt to the changing seasons; effectively we suffer from a mild case of “jet lag” when we set our clocks forward or back an hour. This disturbs the homeostatic balance of our body’s physiological norms.
The degree varies depending on our genetic makeup. Those of us descended from ethnicities that have occupied tropical regions since the dawn of time are likely to be effected far more than others. Such ancestors have experienced no environmental imperative for adaptation to changing daylight periods, let alone abrupt ones. Simply dealing with normal temperate climatic changes is hard enough, an additional abrupt change can result in legitimate health problems.
Even those of us evolved for temperate regions will experience some detrimental impact from an abrupt one hour change. Economic productivity decreases for a period after such changes, and usually for longer than is legitimate purely on a health basis. Some people are inclined to use any excuse to their personal advantage. Work absenteeism increases after DST changes even though the effects should last no longer than two to three days for the vast majority. Employers do need to recognize however, that an extended effect in some is legitimate, depending on their genetics.
For the most part, daylight saving time is a useful and beneficial human concept for states and nations located in the temperate regions of our planet. It has its drawbacks, but many of these are due to misconceptions or inappropriate responses by the citizens of the nations implementing it. Overall it is probably more beneficial than not for such nations; for those predominantly in the Arctic or tropical regions of the planet it is, quite simply, not beneficial and should not be used. Nations that encompass geographical regions that fall both within and outside temperate regions, need to give serious thought to the implementation of DST. Using it in some parts of the country and not in others can work, and may be the best form of application for the majority of their citizens.
